A Montreal man who has always maintained his innocence after being convicted of a quadruple murder in 1994 is one step closer to clearing his name.
Daniel Jolivet, 68, has been locked in a Quebec prison for 33 years, but on Friday, Quebec Superior Court Justice Lyne Decarie agreed to release him on bail.
Emotions were high at the courthouse after the decision was rendered.
“I’m the happiest person in the world. It’s the best Christmas present anyone could give me,” said his granddaughter, Brittany Madore, through tears as she left the courtroom.
Jolivet was released on bail pending a review by the federal justice department, which is looking into his case after announcing in October that there were reasonable grounds to believe a miscarriage of justice had occurred in the trial.
Jolivet’s lawyer, Nicholas St-Jacques, told the court that there was new evidence that had been discovered, raising concerns about the reliability of the guilty verdict and the fairness of the trial that put him behind bars.
“I want (Canadians) to know I am innocent,” Jolivet told CTV’s W5 in a 2023 interview from his prison in Laval, Que., north of Montreal. “Because I have been incarcerated for over 30 years, and if it can happen to me, it can happen to them.”
Jolivet was convicted of four murders that happened in 1992, in Brossard, on Montreal’s South Shore.
Drug traffickers Denis Lemieux and Francois Leblanc were gunned down, along with two women, Nathalie Beauregard and Catherine Morin, who were believed to have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Jolivet was a career criminal. He was convicted of robbery at age 18 and had gone to jail four times before he was sentenced for the murders. But he says he was not a violent man.
“I never hurt nobody,” he said in 2023.
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The evidence at the trial hinged largely on the testimony of an informant, who said that the morning after the murders, Jolivet had confessed in a restaurant that he killed the four victims to settle scores related to drugs and stolen merchandise.
However, the trial did not hear about phone records showing that Jolivet had been making calls at the same time the informant claimed he was confessing.
Jolivet’s lawyer says that had that information been disclosed at the time, it would have changed the defence strategy at the trial more than 30 years ago.
“We now believe that the allegation of miscarriage of justice against Mr. Jolivet is not without merit,” wrote Crown prosecutor Benoit Lauzon after a months-long review of the case.
Still a long road ahead
St-Jacques is the vice-president of Projet Innocence Québec and has been working on this case for 17 years, but other lawyers have been involved long before him. He told reporters that Friday’s decision was “the best day of my career.”
“For Mr. Jolivet … he’ll have a real life, to have a life with people whom he loves, to be able to enjoy the small little things that we enjoy every day," he added.
While he is celebrating Justice Decarie’s decision as a victory, there is still a long road ahead for Jolivet.
The federal justice minister can order a new trial, send the file to the Court of Appeal, or reject the defence motion all together, St-Jacques said. It could take anywhere from one to five years for the review to be completed.
In the meantime, Jolivet will have to abide by his bail conditions and stay at an apartment arranged by Projet Innocence Québec.
Jolivet will receive support reintegrating into society, as his lawyer points out, the world is much different since the 1990s.
“A lot has changed since 1992. The internet has developed. Life goes much faster in 2025 than it was in 1992 … Mr. Jolivet will need basically to have these people around him and all this help to assist him,” St-Jacques said.
Quebec’s Crown prosecution office, the DPCP, did not object to Jolivet’s release.
With files from CTV News’ Genevieve Beauchemin and Matt Gilmour, and The Canadian Press
